Magazine Monday

Do you have a favorite magazine? Do you have subscriptions to your faves or do you spend the crazy 'over the counter' price at the local Barnes and Noble or grocery store?

I have several magazine subscriptions and am REALLY bad about letting them pile up. So here is my new idea........ I will get to at least ONE of my magazines in the pile every weekend and post about it here. This may include me sharing a recipe I wanna try or maybe information about something concerning women's health (sorry to the guy followers) or maybe even just an advertisement that caught  my eye.

So let's get this party started!!!

Up on this weeks agenda? The May 2012 issue of More magazine. If you haven't heard of it, you are probably a much younger gal than me as it is a magazine directed toward women over 40. There are loads of articles that would interest gals of all ages tho, so don't stop reading yet. :) And since this is week one of my foray into Magazine Monday, I will keep it short and sweet.

What Not to Wear Ever

1. Pleats They add volume in all the wrong places. Want texture? Try tweed.
2. Ruffles Too poufy. Floral prints (small please) are equally feminine.
3. Bulky Knits Even in dark hues they add pounds. We like soft layers.
4. Horizontal Stripes If you love the classic pattern, find it in accessories.
5. Capped Sleeves Makes even thin arms look chunky. Choose anything else.

Well I hope you all learned something from this. I know I sure did.....that I have way too many of the WRONG clothes in my closet. Hmmmmm, guess this gal needs to go shopping.

Until next time....

Keep on creating!!!

Some new ideas.....

I love posting on this blog. I love all the readers that stop by. I love getting comments.

I have been trying to think of some new ways to post more often. To be able to express myself a little more and talk to you.....my followers.....about what is going on in my life, but also to put some things our there that interest you all too.

I am going to start some theme posts.....weekly (hopefully) posts that chat about magazines I am reading (Magazine Monday), and pictures that have touched my heart (Wordless Wednesdays-loads of bloggers do this).

I am working to come up with some other themes to add, but this is where I can use your help. Do YOU have some thoughts on what you would like to see or read? Do you do weekly theme posts on YOUR blog?

Stay tuned as I work on visiting with you all more often as well as talking to you more often through this blog.

Until next time....

Keep on Creating!!!

Icons of my era...

Death is inevitable. If this last couple years has smacked me in the face with any reality.....that one is it!

So why does it feel so weird, and make me question my own mortality when an icon from my younger years dies?

Whitney Houston earlier this year and now Donna Summer.

The death of these singers made me really think back to my college days. Dancing and disco-ing til the wee hours of the morning. AHHHHH those were the days.

I put it out on Facebook this morning about my memories of dancing at Fat Daddy's in Morgantown, WV in the late 70's and seems that a bunch of my sorority sisters were thinking of the exact same thing. It is nice to reminisce with people I would not be in contact with were it not for the internet and social media.

To think that when we were dancing at Fat Daddy's there were no CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers. WOW do I feel old now......

But in my mind, I am the same thin, disco-dancing gal I was back then. My body disputes that fact of course, but maybe it is time to put on some old Donna Summer and let my fur-babies witness some of my old moves.

Are there any icons (actors, singers, etc) that bring back memories of your youth? Does it make you smile? Or does it make you wish for those simpler days?

I would love to hear some of your memories. And if you wanna join me in some virtual disco dancing.....I would love for you to let me know some of your fave disco songs so I can add them to my playlist. :o)

Until next time.....

Keep on creating!!!

Mother's Day

Today is a day of bittersweet emotions.

I will be celebrating being Mom to my two little ones who are now wonderful adults. We already started our celebration last night and will finish up today with a Mother's Day lunch later today.

I will also be remembering and missing my dear Mom, as this is our first Mother's Day without her. I promised a post about her ages ago, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet. It will come as the sadness and grief lessen and I am sure that it will help bring closure to the stress of these last 2 years.

So for all of you who are mom's and grandma's I wish you a wonderful day with your families today - whether they be near or far. For those of you missing a mom that is no longer with you, I wish you great memories.

How are you spending this day? I would love to hear about your plans.

Until next time.....

Keep on Creating.

Volunteering....

With all that has gone on with me these last couple of years, with all the anxiety, the minor panic attacks, the self absorption in my own pain, I haven't spent a lot of time going out in the community and doing for others. Not that I did a lot of that before, but I did go on a couple of mission trips, donated blood regularly, spent time being a GOOD friend. All of that got pushed aside while I focused inward. But that has changed as I have been feeling a call recently to do more.....to be the hands and feet of Christ.....to go outside of myself, outside of my comfort zone to help others.

I have been looking for opportunities to do just that and kind of stumbled into an opportunity. I work at Nationwide Insurance and I know what an army of people it takes when a catastrophe strikes. I wanted to be a part of that army, so when 2 of the Nationwide CAT vehicles visited our Columbus, OH location, I signed up to be a call center volunteer during CAT's (catastrophe's). I have always wanted to help with this but wasn't sure how to get involved. I know I can't just pick up and leave my day job to head out to the site of disasters to physically do the work. But volunteering for phone duty? Now THAT I can do.

I will be receiving training and then be on call to help answer phones in the event of a catastrophe or natural disaster. My hope is that I never get called.....not because I don't want to do it, but if I AM called, it means that there are people in distress, people who may have losses beyond anything any of us can fathom.

Since I don't know when or if I will get called upon to help with CAT claims calls, I felt that I needed to search out another volunteer activity. In my search I wandered upon a need for volunteers to make birthday cakes and cookies for hospice patients. WOW, what a great way to serve while using my skills and creativity to brighten someone elses day.

I am looking forward to stretching myself and I can't wait to share any experiences I have in these and other volunteer opportunites.

If you are involved in any time of community outreach, or any type of volunteering, I would love to hear about it. I would love to hear stories about your experiences. Leave me a comment and I will share those experiences on a future post. If you don't feel comfortable leaving a comment on here and want to be annonymous, please email me at acreativespirit1@gmail.com and I will include your thoughts and stories.

Followers...

For those of you that have been blogging for a long while, those of us that have been blogging just a couple years now and for those of you that are newbies in the blogging scene.....what do you think of your followers? How do you feel about them? Do you let them know? How do you treat them if they comment?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately as, when I started my blog, I got caught up in the 'gotta have lotsa followers' mentality and ran out to visit every blog hop I could find. I followed lotsa folks who then quickly followed me back as that is blog etiquestte. Or I did a follow back on those folks that chose to follow me, again as I wanted to follow the rules. I learned pretty quickly that we were all trying to do the same thing - up the number of followers.

Why did / do we do that? Why were we looking for the followers?

• Was it to have a boatload of followers so we 'looked' like a great blog that loads of folks followed so we must have a great blog and make others want to join?
• Was it to up our numbers for some tallying system out there so that, again, we would look like a big time sought after blog?
• Was it to meet new folks? To meet folks with like interests and desires?

I am not sure what your motivation was but I originally wanted to get the numbers with the hopes of someday making money blogging. In doing that, my heart probably wasn't in the right place.

Once I started following others, there were a lot of blogs I never visited again. There were ones I found that I didn't really like once I DID start following and reading their blogs. But what to do? What to do?

I didn't want to unfollow anyone cuz they may figure it out and unfollow me. OH NO!!!

Well, life has thrown me quite a few curves over the last couple of years and my thoughts on blogging have changed. YES I still LOVE my followers and hope they check in often to see what is going on in my life. YES I still want to check in on my followers and my other fave blogs to see what they are up to. YES I still have another blog, Creative Concept Events, that I hope helps launch my business and makes me a little money while doing things I love. YES I still plan to check in with my favorite blogs as well as a few I haven't visited in a while.

I DO plan to continue to answer comments I receive with an email (if one is available....please please please consider letting your email be visible) or with a visit back to the the commenters blog. I always visit the blogs of commenters on TOP of replying to their comment by email cuz I love catching up with all of you.

I know by my daily stats that there are a lot of folks out there that stop by and don't leave comments. I LOVE YOU TOO!!!! So keep on visiting and keep on commenting. I am just happy you took time out of your day to stop by.

So what is my point in all this? Well, I am hitting the old 'manage' button on Blogger and cleaning up some of the blogs I never visit by removing them from my blog list and 'unfollowing'. I know it sounds mean but I have such a hard time scrolling around to find the blogs I DO love and I hesitate on adding any new blogs to the list because I am afraid they will get lost in the jumble of the WAY too many blogs I follow. This clean up will allow me to visit my friends and the blogs I adore more often and in a more joyful way.

Will I still be visiting blog hops? You betcha. Will I still be adding new friends to my blogging time? You know it. I just plan on making my blogging more focused.

I hope all of you continue following me on this journey of recovery, of renewal and of creativity. I appreciate each and every one of you and know some of you have been with me since the beginning of A Creative Spirit and you have a special place in my heart. Let's keep on creating and sharing our lives with each other.

Until next time.....

OH NO!

While watching TV this week I realized WHY I have problems with wants and needs while shopping.

Have you seen any Pier 1 commercials lately?

Their current slogan is

"FIND WHAT SPEAKS TO YOU"

where lovely inantimate objects in the store talk.

Weird huh?

So the newest  Pier 1 commercial has a cute little Froggy mug that chats it up with a customer.

The little female frog says something like "Doesn't your house need a little something? (pause)

I'm a little something!"

CRACK ME UP!

Then the next commercial showed a lovely little chair introducing itself to a customer. It then introduces another chair. So how can you NOT want to buy a chair that is that friendly?

Check these funnies out here.

Wanna see more? Click on the links below for some more suggestive selling

brought to you by Pier 1.

Sock Monkey

Animals speak

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

No wonder I have shopping issues.

JUST SAYING!!!

Until next time...

Keep on Creating.